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Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Washington Aristocracy vs. We the People ... The Aristocracy is Winning

Our national politicians are inept, dysfunctional and unable or unwilling to govern effectively. Everybody knows that. But that's not the worst part.

They also constitute a self interested aristocracy which is interested only in power and staying in political office. They do not have the best interests of We the People in mind. Only their own political interests.

And repeatedly practicing and proving the "theory of bureaucratic displacement," of course. (See prior post.)

So let's cease and desist from separating the political 'leadership' into red and blue, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives, spending and tax hawks and all the rest of the nonsensical political talk that emanates from Washington. They're aristocrats, pure and simple, and we're their unwitting servants. Not the other way around.

Lots of us limited government advocates mistakenly refer to what really amounts to aristocracy as socialism.

But whatever it's called, to mere minions like us, what difference does it make whether we have socialist or aristocratic rulers? It amounts to the same thing, doesn't it? Well, no, as a matter of fact, it doesn't.

In a Constitutional system of limited government like we have in the U.S., there is no place for a self appointed aristocracy. We the People are supposed to be in charge. There's not supposed to be an aristocracy. We're not Europe.

Our system of government simply was not intended for We the People to be ruled by self appointed aristocrats. We're supposed to rule ourselves and be represented by our duly elected officials --- not ruled by them.

But if I'm correct and it is the political aristocracy that rules our government, who belongs to the aristocracy and where does it reside? Well, read on.

"Angst may pervade the land at year's end, but there's one place where
residents can rest easy. According to the Washington Post, "While much of the
nation is still struggling to emerge from a historic housing-market meltdown,
the District is reliving its boom days."No matter how the economy sputters in flyover country next year, President
Obama has made clear that the spending party will continue in Washington. And
that's the main reason Beltway homeowners can party like it's 2005. The Post
says that amid a "red-hot real estate market," one D.C. townhouse recently
listed for $337,000 sold for more than $760,000, after attracting an astounding
168 offers.

Who wouldn't bid aggressively? The chance that the capital city will face the
kind of austerity visited upon Midwest manufacturing towns is essentially zero.
The feds have run up annual deficits of more than $1 trillion in every year of
the Obama first term.

Even if the scheduled avalanche of taxes buries workers and savers next week,
the Congressional Budget Office says the federal government will still be
spending $641 billion more in fiscal 2013 than it collects in revenue. This is
probably a low-ball deficit estimate because CBO staffers largely ignore the
impact of tax policies on human behavior.

But any way you calculate it, the feds will spend more than $3.5 trillion
this year, and a lot of that money will be spilled in the District of Columbia
and its ever-expanding suburbs. The Obama regulatory binge, including the
implementation of ObamaCare, will force businesses to send money to D.C.
influence-peddlers.

For the Beltway boom, there's no end in sight. In an uncertain world, betting
on the expansion of Washington seems to be the most prudent of investments."DiscussionArtistocratic politicians like the Roosevelts, Kennedys, Bushes and Clintons have longed reigned supreme in U.S. government. They're not smarter individuals than the rest of We the People -- just more powerful and perhaps a bit more clever politically with the games they play.Over the decades, most of the Democratic leaders have successfully vilified entreprenuerial businessmen as fat cat greedy enemies of the victimized 'middle class,' and the 'middle class' has been won over by effectively being bribed with entitlements for which somebody else is paying --- fat cats or government borrowings to be repaid by succeeding generations of minions. Our government spends a trillion dollars more each year than we collect in taxes. And not even one half of that spend to tax gap can continue indefinitely, no matter what the political aristocrats may say or do. The money they spend and redistribute to minion #1 is first taken from minion #2. The money they "invest" in Solyndra and education must first be taken from the minions. Period. End of story. Both political "sides" keep using the word "fairness." Well, what's fair about a no growth, high unemployment, heavily indebted nation ruled by self interested bureaucrats who can't make the necessary bipartisan and timely decisions to bring our country's finances under control? And who also won't agree on the specifics with respect to how we will learn to live within our means as a nation? And who treat We the People with utter disdain by the very way in which they "rule?"The facts are straightforward. We've spent and borrowed our way to a false prosperity over the past several decades, and now the bill is coming due.What do we need to do? Things like the following: raise taxes, reduce spending, raise the age for Medicare and Social Security eligibility, reduce mortgage interest deductibility, reduce charitable contributions deductibility, eliminate the non-taxable nature of employer health care contributions for employees, tighten student loans, stop building bridges to nowhere, stop "investing" in the Solyndras, wind and ethanol programs, introduce vouchers into our educational system, tighten control over taxpayer funded support for public universities, put the post office out of business as a ward of the state, and countless other similar activities.We simply need to develop an actionable plan to raise enough revenue and reduce enough spending to accomplish some kind of national fiscal sanity over time. And unleash the private sector so the economy can grow and jobs can be found for those willing and able to work.But now that the year 2013 is upon us and the obvious but clearly painful choices await the aristocrats' decisons as the duly elected representatives and public servants of We the People, the aristocratic government rulers don't know what to do. Or at least don't have the guts to do it.In fact, acknowledging that as a nation we must learn to live within our means hasn't even been part of the aristocrats' lexicon the past several decades. Summing UpThe entire aristocratic U.S. political rulership is predicated on OPM redistributionist spending, and on getting and staying elected. And to do that by taxing as few people as possible as much as possible and by giving freebies to as many people as possible and borrowing the shortfall or gap between the amount taxed and the amount spent.The political aristocrats realize fully that implementing a truly 'balanced' spending to taxing approach would be painful and upset the 'middle class' minions, aka the lion's share of the voters. And that if they were to do what's right, in the next election they may lose their powerful positions as the chief spenders of the land. So they play chief can kickers and hope the problem will either go away or at least not become an immediate crisis which has to be dealt with on their watch.The politicians are in this together, joined at the hip and unwilling to admit the cold hard truth about their very real contribution and huge role in our nation's unhealthy economy and poor financial condition and outlook.Here's my reality. It's not about the rich versus the poor or the capitalists versus the socialists. Instead it's all about the aristocrats versus We the People.Thus far the aristocrats are winning in a big way, as they have been for a very long time. And it's our fault, We the Minions, that we're allowing the aristocrats to defeat us without even working up a sweat while doing so.Politics sucks.Now I feel better.Thanks. Bob.